Feature
- Math
Chaotic Chomp
A new, physics-based approach to analyzing simple games, such as Chomp and Nim, reveals changing geometric patterns reminiscent of crystal growth.
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Bringing Up Baby’s DNA
Researchers are developing ways to harvest babies' genes in less invasive ways.
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- Tech
Smells Like the Real Thing
Chemical sensors that take cues from the mammalian pattern-based approach to identifying odors and flavors create colorful readouts that even the eyes can distinguish.
- Earth
Dirty Little Secret
Recognition is growing that many communities have soils laced with asbestos, which has prodded several federal agencies to probe the hazards they might pose.
- Astronomy
Astronomy Gets Polarized
Studies using polarized light, an endeavor once considered astronomy's stepchild, are now elucidating the shape of supernovas as well as providing new details about the early universe.
- Astronomy
Galactic de Gustibus
About 13 billion years after its birth, our galaxy is still packing on the stars.
- Tech
Pumping Alloy
A new way to power artificial muscles improves the prospects for making lifelike humanoid robots and prosthetic limbs.
- Health & Medicine
A Vexing Enigma
While no drug or lab test is approved to treat or diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome, new research into the biology of the disorder may begin to shed light on the problem.
- Animals
Naked and Not
The Damaraland mole rat may be less famous than its naked cousin, but both have some of the oddest social structures found in a mammal.
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Nurture Takes the Spotlight
What a person eats, what chemicals he or she is exposed to, and other features of a person's environment chemically modify chromosomes, thereby changing how genes are ultimately expressed.
- Paleontology
Amphibious Ancestors
Newly discovered fossils from Greenland, as well as a reexamination of those of previously known creatures, are providing researchers with additional insights into ancient vertebrates' move from water to land.
